You've heard the old joke about the man who bought a horse from a very religious owner. The horse didn't respond to the normal commands like "giddy up" for "go" and "whoa" for "stop." The religious man who had trained the horse taught him to "go" at the word "hallelujah" and the "stop" command was…
"But it's not fair!" You could hear the pain and anger in her voice. You could see her face was contorted and shaped in a way that communicated just how upset she was. Hey, get use to this if you have children! My daughter was indignant that her sister got to do something she wasn't…
Animal sacrifices are found in many cultures and many belief systems. Which begs the question, where did this idea that blood was necessary to atone for sins originate?
Glad you asked. It originated from the beginning.
Look at our Lesson today in Genesis 3:21-4:7:
And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife…
Years ago there was a variety TV show hosted by the then famous American comedian, Flip Wilson. He was outrageous but one of his most famous lines was "The devil made me do it."
It seems we humans have a particular gift for shifting the blame to someone else when we make mistakes. We also…
Phillip James Bailey, an English poet of the late 19th century, once said: "Let each man think himself an act of God; his mind a thought; his life, a breath of God; and let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds to show the most of heaven he hath in him."
One of the…
Fr. Barnabas' New Book - A Faith Encouraged - will help keep you focused on the Faith between Sundays. In the style of his daily devotional podcast, A Faith Encouraged is a spiritual tool you can use year round to be Orthodox on Purpose. And Ancient Faith Publishing is featuring A Faith Encouraged as their…
Shakespeare's Hamlet has a character named Polonius and Shakespeare has him utter those now famous words "For the apparel oft proclaims the man." And then, of course, there's the famous business advice "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have!" All this focus on apparel makes one wonder if men are unaware…
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"To everything, turn, turn, turn. There is a season, turn, turn, turn. And a time to every purpose under heaven." The Byrds lyrics were taken, of course, from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the First Testament. It is the gift of time, granted to us by God, where our lives play out.
It is also…
I remember the days of my early religious development and the focus on the heated discussion between creation and evolution. And it seemed that, if you were religious then everything in your faith hung on God creating rather than evolution to "explain" the beginning of all things.
At the risk of upsetting some, I have…